ANN ARBOR, MI – Thomson Reuters has released its annual study identifying the 100 U.S. hospitals that deliver significantly better outcomes and lower costs for inpatient cardiovascular care.

"100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmarks" examined the performance of 971 hospitals by analyzing outcomes for patients diagnosed with heart failure and heart attacks and for those who received coronary bypass surgery or percutaneous cardiovascular interventions (PCI) such as angioplasties.

The study, in its 11th year, evaluated short-term, acute care, non-federal U.S. hospitals that treat a broad spectrum of cardiology patients. It found that these hospitals have 17 percent lower mortality rates for heart attack patients and 10 percent lower mortality rates for heart failure patients.

The top hospitals also have 27 percent lower mortality for bypass surgery patients, 22 percent lower mortality following PCI and fewer post-operative complications (99 percent of patients were complication-free).

These hospitals performed more than 50 percent more cardiac surgeries than peer hospitals.

The top performing hospitals also stood tall financially. They averaged close to 12 percent shorter average hospital stays and12 percent lower costs per case.

Thomson Reuters researchers analyzed 2007 and 2008 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data, 2008 Medicare cost reports and data from other sources. They classified hospitals into three comparison groups and scored them in key performance areas: risk-adjusted medical mortality, risk-adjusted surgical mortality, risk-adjusted complications, core measures (a group of measures that assess process of care), percentage of coronary bypass patients with internal mammary artery use, procedure volume, severity-adjusted average length of stay, and wage- and severity-adjusted average cost.

The 2009 winners are listed on the following page. (The order of hospitals in the list does not reflect performance ranking.)